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CRIME

Deutsche Bahn’s new ticket-cheat policy to inflate crime stats

The German crime rate is set to be boosted in the next months by the new zero tolerance policy of rail operator Deutsche Bahn towards tickets cheats, Der Spiegel reported Saturday.

Published: 25 July 2009 13:34 CEST
Deutsche Bahn's new ticket-cheat policy to inflate crime stats
Photo: DPA

Deutsche Bahn (DB) has begun to press charges for fraudulent acquisition of services every time someone is caught without a ticket, the magazine reported.

The new rule will add another 600,000 to the number of recorded crimes every year, an increase by around 10 percent.

Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is reported to be less than impressed with DB’s new policy. Estimates suggest that around 200 extra police officials are needed to process the criminal charges.

Der Spiegel reported that talks with public prosecution authorities are to be held discussing whether such cases are to pursued at all, but the Interior Ministry denied this in a statement on Saturday.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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